Irina Patkanian

Irina Patkanian is an award winning filmmaker, a Fulbright and MacDowell Fellow, and the president In Parenthesis - a nonprofit film, theater and media arts company. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Irina Patkanian came to the U.S. in 1991 after graduating from the University of St. Petersburg with a BA in English Literature. After receiving an MA degree in Linguistics from the University of Iowa, she was awarded an American Association of University Women International Fellowship to pursue the MFA degree in Film Production. Irina's films have screened at more than a 100 film festivals, incl. DOC NYC, Ann Arbor, STARZ Denver, Palm Springs, Hot Springs and many others. Her work has been supported by fellowships and grants from NYSCA, Tow, Blaustein, Troy and Jerome Foundations. Irina is a currently working on the documentary film opera "Iphigenia, the First Refugee" about a woman's experience of war, written by Lisa Schlesinger, scored by Kinan Azmeh, directed by Marion Schoevaert.

Education:

B.A. in Philology of Germanic Languages, State University of St. Petersburg, Russia - 1991 (English Language and Literature)

Areas of Expertise:

Irina makes hybrid fiction/nonfiction films colliding fact and animation, history and poetry, testimony and theater - to discover in discrete human circumstance -- of war, of birth, of language, of love -- the mysterious ways of making meaning.

"Socrates of Kamchatka" was officially selected to have its world premiere at 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival. 2017

Documentary poems "Children in Gold," "Sisters" and "The Waterline" were officially selected to play on Iowa PBS, as well as at 2016 Social Justice Film Festival (Seattle, WA), 2017 Peace on Earth Film Festival (Chicago, IL - Best Short Documentary award); 2017 Socially Relevant Film Festival (New York, NY); 2017 Global Impact Film Festival (Washington D.C.); 2017 DocuWest Film Festival (Denver, CO), 2017 Fargo Film Festival (Fargo, ND) and at the XXV Visible Evidence International Documentary Conference (Indianapolis, IN). 2017

Armed Defense, a short film based on a story by Dmitry Bakin that I adapted / directed / produced, was officially selected to play at Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, Ill.; Athens International Film Festival, Ohio; M.A.L.I. Women's Film & Performance Arts Festival, Austin, Texas; Connecticut International Film Festival, Danbury, Conn.; 32nd Starz Denver Film Festival. 2013: UFVA (best short fiction film award), Big Apple Film Festival, New York; S.N.O.B. Film Festival, Concord, N.H.; Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Massachusetts Independent Film Festival, Cambridge, Mass. 2013

Travelled to the Republic to Georgia to create video installation for the multimedia concert "Sacred Songs of Sakartvelo," commissioned by Texas State University. 2011

Directed/produced multi-camera productions of the spring season of "Very Young People's Concerts," commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. 2010

My American Neighbor, a 30-minute documentary about perception of the U.S. and American dream abroad, premiered at the Independent Television Festival in Los Angeles in July 2007 and was officially selected to play at the following festivals: International Social Uprising, Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement Film Festival, Portland, OR; Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Arkansas; Big Damn Film Festival, Chicago; San Francisco Indie Film Festival; Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, Ill.; Indianapolis International Film Festival; Seattle True Independent Film Festival; Connecticut Film Festival; BridgeFest, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Belgrade, Serbia; Philadelphia Independent Film Festival; 62nd University Film & Video Association Conference, Colorado; Golden Apricot, International Armenian Film Festival, Yerevan, Armenia; and Peace on Earth Film Festival, Chicago (best short documentary award). Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences. 2008

Second Egyptian, a short digital film, based on a story by Marina Palei that I adapted/directed/produced premiered at the 2007 San Diego Women Film Festival, where it received "Best Narrative" jury award and subsequently was officially selected to play at the following festivals: Arpa International Film Festival, Los Angeles; Women's International Film Festival, Florida; Newfilmmakers NY, a screening series at Anthology Film Archives, New York; 62nd University Film & Video Association Conference, (award finalist) juried faculty screening, Colorado. 2008

Armenian Lullaby is selected for online exhibition, Imaging Ourselves, by International Museum of Women in Los Angeles. It was awarded the 2007 Best of Middle East Award by the International Museum of Women. 2007

Screening and discussion of My American Neighbor at New Pioneer Theater, New York, as part of Visions, Voices, Videos: Documentary Films by Women Filmmakers--Annette Danto, Irene Sosa and Irina Patkanian. 2006

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

Awarded a PSC CUNY Research Grant (B) to continue working on "Somos Cuba" an immersive documentary feature. (Grants and Fellowships) 2018

"Iphigenia in Lesvos" documentary film opera, a multiyear collaboration with Lisa Schlessinger (playwright), Kinan Azmeh (composer) and Marion Schoevaert (theater director) was awarded Awarded Obermann Interdisciplinary fellowship and Arts and Humanities Initiative Major Grant from the University of Iowa Office for Research and Development to support a Partnership in the Arts developmental production of the film opera at the University of Iowa Theatre Arts Department in partnership with Hancher Auditorium's Embracing Complexity program, the Center for Human Rights, the Obermann Center forAdvanced Studies, the Film department and the School of Music. (Grants and Fellowships) 2017

PSC-CUNY 44 Research Award (enhanced), to defer production costs for a documentary with animated sequences "Little Fiel." (Grants and Fellowships) 2013

Fulbright Fellowship, to spend Spring 2012 in Istanbul doing research for an experimental film about renowned Armenian-Turkish photographer Ara Güler. (Grants and Fellowships) 2011

Jerome Foundation grant, to write/direct/produce the documentary feature Living Here: A Kamchatka Tale," a story of one family in the end of Siberia told from a perspective of a horse. $25,000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010

PSC-CUNY Research Foundation grant, to develop an animated documentary about the civil war in Mozambique. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010

Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation grant, to help offset production expenses of a documentary feature, Living Here. Kamchatka Tale. $5,000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009

Leonard & Claire Tow Faculty Travel Grant, to travel to Mozambique for research and production of an animated documentary about the Mozambican civil war. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009

PSC-CUNY Research Award, to begin production of a feature-length documentary, Living Here. Kamchatka Tale. $6,000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009

Texas State University grant, to collaborate with Jonathan Babcock on Sacred Voice of Sacartvelo, a documentary film about folk songs of the Republic of Georgia. $8,000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009

2007 NYSCA Grant (Individual Artists/Film & New Technologies), to direct/produce a short film, Armed Defense, based on a short story by an anti-Booker Prize-winning Russian writer Dmitry Bakin. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007

Brooklyn College Award for Excellence in Creative Achievement. (Awards and Honors) 2007

Leonard & Claire Tow Faculty Travel grant, to travel to France, Israel and Russia for research and development of a screenplay, Costs of Memory. Trial of Sholom Schwartzbard, based on the 1927 trial of Sholom Schwartzbard, who in summer 1924 assassinated the former president and the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Directory, Simon Petliura, whom he held responsible for the pogroms of Ukrainian Jews. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006

Leonard & Claire Tow Faculty Travel Grant, to travel to Russia, Italy, Egypt and Greece to shoot interviews with American citizens for My American Neighbor, a 30-minute documentary essay that invites the audience to reflect on the importance of distance in one's understanding of homeland. (Grants and Fellowships) 2004

Presented two of my films at 67th Annual University Film and Video Association Conference: a short film, Armed Defense, which received the Award of Merit in short fiction narrative category, and a documentary/fiction feature, Socrates of Kamchatka, which received Honorable Mention in feature nonfiction category in Faculty Juried Screening Competition. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2013

LIving Here: A Kamchatka Tale selected to participate in the Documentary Pitch Forum at the Tromso International Film Festival, Tromso, Norway, organized by European Documentary Network. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010